About the Outcome Mapping Learning Community

The OMLC is a registered not-for-profit organisation in Belgium (register number 0541857935) and governed by the Board of Stewards. The OMLC currently contracts Simon Hearn to act as the Coordinator.

OMLC Mission

The Outcome Mapping Learning Community is a global, informal, open membership network for sharing information and facilitating learning on using Outcome Mapping for planning, monitoring and evaluating complex interventions. It is one community among many in a growing field that recognises the complex and interconnected nature of developmental change work and hence the requirement for appropriate and adaptive management tools that emphasise individual and organisational learning. At a practical level, OMLC members support one another in learning and applying the Outcome Mapping methodology, showcase and exchange their experiences and contribute to the development of the methodology. The OMLC focuses on six domains in pursuit of the vision (see below):

Steward the development of Outcome Mapping to maintain its relevance and keep up with innovations in theory and practice.

Facilitate learning and knowledge sharing among members about planning, monitoring and evaluating complex interventions through the use of Outcome Mapping.

Support and model appropriate application of Outcome Mapping for complex social and environmental change.

Demonstrate uses and usefulness of Outcome Mapping as a method for planning, monitoring and evaluating interventions in complex situations.

Explore the complementarities and compatibilities between Outcome Mapping and other planning, monitoring and evaluation approaches.

Engage and influence planning, monitoring and evaluation of the wider social and environmental change field through the principles and practices of Outcome Mapping.

OMLC Vision

The Outcome Mapping Learning Community envisions a world where… Practitioners and managers around the world creatively design development interventions that take into consideration the complexity and uncertainty of developmental change. Recognizing the importance of local involvement to the success of these projects and programmes, technical and administrative teams work with local partners to define common goals and strategies, being realistic about the limits of influence and relative contribution to results. The sponsoring organisations and their partners recognise the importance of behaviour change for equity and sustainability and prioritise it as a key result to understand. They jointly set monitoring and evaluation priorities and collaborate on data collection and analysis. Funders welcome the reporting of qualitative results alongside and combined with quantitative results, that provide them with realistic information about what is happening “on the ground” in the interventions they support, and how and why it is happening. Researchers and evaluators produce insightful and ultimately useful studies based on appropriate methodologies and realistic theories of change, which in turn help policy makers and others to make informed decisions regarding how to improve social, environmental, economic, technical and political conditions everywhere, particularly for the poorest.